Tu rtle f r ie ndly guid e
How you can help Turtles need dark beaches if they are to survive. They cannot change their behaviour towards lights so it’s up to us to help maximise nesting success and hatchling survival. Whether you are a community resident, visitor or business, you can help reduce the glow of lights affecting beaches in your local area. During the breeding season from mid-October to April from 7.30pm onwards, you can help endangered loggerhead turtles by: • Turning off any unnecessary internal and external lights. • Closing your curtains and blinds. • Using motion sensor or intermittent lights for external lighting. • Using proven, turtle-friendly, low-pressure sodium vapour lights for external lighting. • Positioning your lights so they face away from the beach. • Planting vegetation buffers to help shield your lights. • If camping, shade lights to reduce the area illuminated. • On the beach use only a small torch (less than 3 volts).
Cut the Glow to help Turtles Go
Bright lights and marine turtles don’t go together
Endangered Loggerhead turtles dig the dark
For further information contact Environmental Protection Agency Visit us online at www.epa.qld.gov.au Mon Repos Conservation Park: (07) 4159 1652 Nov to Mar: 6pm–midnight nightly Apr to Oct: Mon–Fri daily Bundaberg Office: (07) 4131 1600
©State of Queensland Environmental Protection Agency. 2008. BP0059 October 2008 Recycled paper saves energy and resources.
You can help minimise human disturbance to nesting and hatchling marine turtles by reducing the impacts from artificial lights – Cut the Glow to help Turtles Go
Lights and Turtles Nesting and hatchling marine turtles are disoriented by bright lights. Artificial lights interfere with their natural habits and instincts, resulting in negative impacts on the population. Marine turtles are threatened species — they need our help to survive.
Why are lights a problem? It is no accident that the majority of both nesting and hatchling turtle activity occurs at night. Disturbances and danger from predators, both on land and at sea, is lowest under the cover of darkness. Artificial light disturbance can be from a single light directly opposite a nesting beach or from the collective glow of lights from a coastal community. If nesting areas become bright from artificial lights, female turtles may change their nesting beach. This may lead to turtles nesting in unsuitable locations, resulting in reduced egg production and hatchling survival. Bright artificial lights also cause hatchlings to become disorientated which significantly impacts their chances of survival.
Turtles in trouble Breeding female turtles migrate back to the general area of their birth to nest. Turtles choose their nesting beach while still offshore before coming on land to lay their eggs, and will usually remain loyal to that selected beach. However, if coastal communities emit bright artificial lights and glows above the beaches, the turtles may move to a darker beach. This can be a problem as not all beaches are good incubators
for turtle eggs. Some beaches are open to the elements and erosion can affect nests; others are rockier, making it harder for turtles to dig their nests causing them to waste valuable energy with each attempt. After hatchlings emerge from their nests at night, they find their way to the sea by moving towards the lightest horizon as they see it. Under natural conditions, this is over the ocean and hatchlings will quickly travel down the beach into the water, heading for the strong coastal currents to carry them into deeper water where they can mature. Unfortunately, on nesting beaches near towns, resorts and camping areas, artificial lights can mask a turtle’s capacity to see the natural horizon. In these unnatural situations, hatchlings can become disoriented, veering from their natural path and heading towards the artificial light source, lessening their chances of survival. Even hatchlings that have made it to the sea can be enticed back to land by strong coastal lights. As the dawn approaches and the contrast between artificial and natural light decreases, the hatchlings will usually turn from the
artificial lights and head towards the sea, unfortunately with a greater risk of bird predation. Many will not make it as they have become trapped in vegetation, or they have wasted energy reserves due to their extended wanderings. As the day progresses, hatchlings caught on shore may overheat and die. In the natural scheme of things, turtle hatchlings are already at considerable risk. Disrupting their lifecycle during this critical stage can have drastic effects on their survival rates. If insufficient numbers of hatchlings from a nesting area survive to maturity, the continuity of that breeding population itself is in jeopardy.